Having been away for a week, today I returned to my routine and volunteered my time to Care for Dogs as the driver of dogs to see the vet.

In the front with me was Morg, by his appearance it would seem he is an old boy and possibly of Ban Kaow breeding.

In the back were moaning Max, Jaum Luai and Maa Luai.

There wasn’t much said in the back but Morg and I had a good chat in the front, especially at the traffic lights when I was able to wipe the drips from his nose and caress his body, feeling every bone under the patchy covering of hair and inflamed and bloated legs and feet.

The vet diagnosed a possibility of 3 things going on with Morg, finding no mange, yeast or fungus under the microscope, that Morg was suffering from either old age and a long term infection, blood parasite or possibly a thyroid problem. We shall know which of these it is when we see the results of blood tests. (More about blood tests later!) Meanwhile he is now completely bald, having been shaved from head to toe, in order to deal with the multiple wounds erupting from his inflamed body.

Max was next to be seen by the vet and after a lot of moaning an groaning when the vet looked at his ears, it is finally time to take the drastic step of opening up the left ear and surgically removing the infected area in an attempt to stop the constant serious infection that he has suffered with since coming to the shelter a year ago. Maybe the complaints he makes about anyone touching his ears could be justified, after all his left one must be extremely painful. Poor guy.

Maa Luai visited the vet today for further blood tests and after taking blood and assessing the pink spots and yellow skin colouring it was quite apparent that she is suffering from jaundice.

This is apparently due to her red blood cells breaking down.

When we looked at her body it seemed swollen as if she were pregnant and thoughts of pyometra (closed) came to mind, maybe there being an infection going on inside due to that condition.

She was xrayed and thankfully there was no sign of pyometra but instead, indication of a condition called Ascites with a body cavity showing an increased amount of retained fluid, thus the ballooning of her abdomen.

Sadly, the vet clinic today was suffering technical failure with it’s blood diagnosis system, the crucial assessment of liver function being the failing test process.

So if you have just read the wikipedia link about Ascites, you will be coming to the same conclusion of 1+1 = 2 or in other words, disaster+disaster=disaster or words to that effect. Today of all days, no liver function tests. First Morg, now Maa Luai !

With her red blood cells on free fall, she needs to have daily steroid shots for a week, to force her system to generate more red blood cells and also receive saline on a drip.

Finally on the vets couch was Jaum Luai. This poor little girl is in a bad way. Not eating, weak and almost lifeless.

And again this case depended upon a thorough blood assessment update, to discover if her condition was improving or deteriorating.

Although inconclusive, the partial results indicate she is getting weaker.

Already on various medications, she was immediately put on a drip.

At this point I returned to the shelter with the patients.

On arrival, Sarah asked me if I would mind taking Jaum Luai back to the clinic to be admitted and sponsored by her. Sarah, as so often happens with this activity, has become attached to Jaum Luai and would like to help her the best she can.

No problem, I said, I was due to visit the clinic again in the afternoon with another dog anyway, so I returned Jaum Luai for some ‘intensive care’, courtesy of Sarah.